<p>Do schools take into consideration your declared major when determining whether to admit or reject you? If perhaps there is less interest for that major, a kid with weaker stats may have a shot?</p>
<p>Depends on the schools. For the UCs, the choice of major affects the admission. But for Georgia tech or MIT for example, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Sometimes yes. Usually no. </p>
<p>When it does matter, choice of major may dictate which division of a university you’ll apply to: e.g., College of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Nursing, etc. Sometimes different divisions of a university have different admissions standards. Sometimes there are majors within a division of a university that are designated “impacted” or “limited enrollment” or something similar.</p>
<p>But I think those situations are not the general rule.</p>
<p>You’ll have to read the web sites of colleges and universities that interest you to find out their particular practices, or email them and ask if you can’t find the answers on their web sites.</p>
<p>And I am quite sure it’s an old wives’ tale that you can improve your chances of getting into a selective college or university by feigning interest in a discipline that nobody majors in.</p>
<p>It could because grades and test scores are not the only factor in admissions (otherwise, you could just mail in your grades and test scores and be done with it) - but you’d have to make an excellent case for why you are committed to that field. It’s not good enough to suddenly discover a love for Classics or German Lit in your senior year. And as Johny pointed out, at some schools you have to actually apply to be admitted to a specific major.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies! Son is interested in double majoring in International Relations and French. He isnt looking to get into a higher ranked school, just hoping to be more appealing to his first couple of choices.</p>
<p>He should consider picking up another language. Although French would be useful many places in Africa and the Carribean, somewhat ironically, I don’t think it is quite the lingua franca that it used to be.</p>
<p>I tried to nudge him more toward Spanish, but he was set on French. It is now his passion. His ultimate goal is to live in France, so it should serve him well. He is talking about learning another language as well, perhaps Arabic. Oh to be young again!</p>
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<p>It is likely that those situations are more common than not, since state universities tend to have at least some divisions or majors which are enrolled to full capacity (unused capacity when there is additional student demand is effectively wasted, not something that budget-limited states really want their state universities to do). Well-endowed private universities are more likely to have excess capacity in every major.</p>
<p>Remember also that if freshman admission standards vary by major or division, then changing into an impacted major or division after enrolling is likely to be difficult, often requiring another competitive admission process.</p>
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<p>Agree here. Unfortunately, it is not always obvious from the web sites how much major choice matters at the freshman admission level.</p>
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<p>There are significant Arab minority communities in France.</p>
<p>Of course, from France, one does not have to go that far to find other non-French languages.</p>
<p>UCBalum, I know you think this practice is way more common than I think it is. I will admit, I don’t honestly know how prevalent it is. I have a hypothesis that because you graduated from a university system where it’s the norm, you think it’s common, and because I attended universities that don’t operate that way, I think hardly anyone does, and the truth may lie somewhere between.</p>
<p>I still stand by my wording, though, since even in places such as the UCs, where there are impacted majors, or my own state flagship where they have limited enrollment programs, those constraints don’t affect a large number of applicants for admission. And it wouldn’t have any bearing on the situation that the OP describes: “If perhaps there is less interest for that major, a kid with weaker stats may have a shot?” (I’m not sure that International Relations is going to qualify as an undersubscribed major, either. It certainly won’t where my daughter is studying it. You can’t swing a stick there without hitting 4 International Studies majors–3 of whom will be studying Arabic!)</p>
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<p>Excellent point.</p>
<p>Depends where you applied. I know for UC’s it does have an impact. They can only accept so many students per major. So, yes, technically a student with lower scores and GPA would have a better chance of getting admitted if they declared a less popular major.</p>
<p>Every schools is different. I work in Admissions and I know that some schools may have a need for a certain major and that may impact the decision. At the same time, there may be an abundace of students in one major and that may negatively impact the decision. One of the bigger needs across the country are STEM majors. </p>
<p>If you need anything else, feel free to let me know.</p>